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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Who owns what--a guide to wine brands

That interesting new wine brand you saw at the store the other day--is it an independent, artisanal operation, or is it the brainchild of a megacorporation's marketing department?

Large wine corporations are capable of making good, even great wines, so the mere fact that Brand X is in fact owned by MegaCorp Y does not necessarily mean that the Brand X wine will be no good. But large corporations are rarely adventurous or innovative, at least when it comes to consumer products. Given the choice between a $10 bottle from some genuinely small operation we have never heard of, and a $10 bottle from, say, the E&J Gallo family of products, we will always opt for the former on the grounds that we are much more likely to discover something new, interesting, even challenging.

Below you will find a list of most of the brands owned, produced or distributed by the major players in the wine industry. If there is sufficient demand, we can develop a tri-fold wallet size card for you. In the meantime, use this list as a field guide next time you are out shopping for wine.

As always, your comments are welcome. Have you tried any of the brands below? What have been your experiences? Do you wonder who really owns a new brand you have seen? If you can't find it on the list below, zap us a note and we will do our best sleuthing to get you an answer.

Nota bene: this list was compiled in February 2009. While we strived for accuracy we cannot guarantee that the list is free of errors, and we apologize for any errors herein. Change is rapid in the wine world, and doubtless many of the brands below will have or soon will vanish, change hands, be joined by sister brands, etc.

Any reason why you are not including Terlato International in your list?

They produce and distribute a lot of great and popular wines like Chimney Rock, Sokol Blosser (Evolution), Cuvaison, Sanford, Markham/Glass Mountain, Wairu River and Bollinger. Plus a lot of others that I can't remember off the top of my head.

I am not a fan or a detractor of their wines but I have to consider them in my inventory.

You raise a good point, Anonymous. But it would take hours to go through all these brands making that distinction. If you have any specific questions, e.g., does Terlato own or distribute Hanna, I'll be happy to try to answer them.

This has proved to be our most popular post ever, with most of the traffic coming from search engines. Clearly, "Who owns what" is something that folks want to know.

Here's something we'd like to know--what brought you to this page? If there was a particular question, e.g., who owns Redwood Creek? please tell us! Or if you simply wanted to know all the brands in the K-J empire, or what! We want to know.

So if you come to this page (and read down this far), please take a moment to tell us what brought you here. Thanks!

You've got a big field to play in and people keep moving the stones. It was so simple 50 years ago when I drove up and down the Napa Valley and talked FTF with people like Heitz, Parducci, and Mondavi. By the time I got down to Modesto trying to see one of the Gallo Brothers was harder then getting a few words with Ho Chi Minh. Oh well, that's progress. I guess.

I was all set to ask about who owns Black Box Wines, then in the boxed wines commentary, you said it was Constellation-perhaps the boxed wines can go in the lists with their owners/distributors and have "box" annotated?

stumbled upon this site searching on google "wines under the kendall- jackson company", was simply curious. will definitely be printing this out and keeping it in mind, had no idea a lot of the wines i thought were boutique wines are actually owned by mega corporations. thanks for the information

This is something of a technical distinction, but those with more than a passing interest in the business might be interested: Terlato doesn't actually "distribute" any wines. It is the marketing and sales agent for many of the brands you list (as well as importer for the non-domestic brands). As such, it works with a network of distributors to bring the wines to market. In essence, it becomes a fourth tier in what is typically a three-tier system (producer, distributor, retailer). Wineries partnering with Terlato are thus able—at the cost of a margin going to Terlato, of course—to have far slimmer sales, marketing and public relations staff themselves, and, perhaps more importantly, theoretically more attention from the distributor than they would be able to gain on their own.

To the best of my knowledge, J. Lohr, Ferrari-Carano, Bernardus, Grgich Hills, Niebaum-Coppola and Domaine Serene are all independent. I believe that Gnarly Head is owned by Delicato Family Vineyards, which despite still being run by the Indelicato family seems to be big enough to be considered corporate, rather than independent.Layer Cake is owned by Jayson Woodbridge, whose Hundred Acre wines go for big bucks. But I suppose it still counts as independent. Silver Oak is independent.Silver Gap I had not heard of before, and I have not yet managed to find any information on it. When I do, I'll let you know. I hope this helps!

Since you asked, I came to your site to find out who owns Red Diamond. I knew a lot of wineries were owned by big brands, but seeing them all on a list is kind of depressing...like finding out a favorite neigborhood restaurant is actually a chain. Thanks for posting this information so clearly. The only suggestion I'd make is maybe alphabetize, since there are so many names...make them easier to find. Thanks again.

I work at a small winery in Napa Valley, have been selling "fine" wine forever (over 2 decades) and want to thank you for this objective list. Folks need to know so they can think a bit more for themselves. Cheers!

Fabulous! Thanks for the list. I'm opening a wine store in Boston and I'm sick and tired of the small family owned and operated vineyard not getting their due. If a winery sells out to one of the "big guys" you know the quality is going to suffer. The wine maker is no longer focused on making wine but meeting a bottom line, having to maximizing profit and cut corners. These companies are responsible for the current state of the New World palate, all of the wines taste the same, over extracted, high alcohol, slam you in the face fruit and no lingering finish.Such a shame. Big money big wines!

love the list! Please consider making this a area that you update frequently. I love the central coast of California, and it seems the area is slowly going corporate as well.....Bridlewood, Justin, Cambria and others have either sold out to rich folk, or big corporations!

Ken, Thanks for the encouragement. I wish I had the time and resources to keep this list current, and I wish more people were as aware as you of the growing corporatization of the wine producing world. I would be happy to pass this baton off to anyone who has the time and energy.Matt

If anyone is concerned that the winery you're planning to visit/purchase bottles from is owed by a corporation or parent company, my advice is to ask a person in the tasting room over the phone or during your visit who the owners are and if it's an independent operation. I work for a small producer in the Alexander Valley and I'm always proud to tell our guests about the owners - one of which is also our winemaker. Stick to the small producers and drink happy everyone.

Thanks for the suggestion, Anonymous. What Kobrand actually owns remains mysterious to me. They sure have their hands in a lot of properties. At any rate, I am no longer maintaining this list. If anyone else wants to take it on, please do so!

Being bought out by a larger company is not always bad.They can afford to pay for advertising and help pay for all the mandatory expenditures which can kill small vintors. Workers' comp premiums, health insurance, safety inspectors, etc, could force a closure of many great wineries.

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Thank you for visiting Wines for the People, the mouthpiece for The People's Wine Revolution, based in Calistoga, California. Our introductory message will give you a sense of the blog's purpose, and the Welcome, New Readers post is a handy index to all of the posts here, arranged by subject. Well, most of them, anyway. We're too busy making wine to keep the index fully up to date.We welcome your comments!

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We are Matt Reid and Marcy Webb, winemakers in Napa Valley who intend to revolutionize wine by bringing it to the people--ruling class wines at working class prices.
Although our labor of love is PWR Wines, this blog is not an advertising platform for that brand. The opinions expressed herein are ours personally, and should not be considered advertising claims or statements on behalf of PWR. For instance, when we say that TTB (our federal agency in charge of regulating wine, among many other things) should not inhibit the free speech of winery owners, that is our own opinion, and should not be taken as a statement attributable to PWR. Actually, we suspect PWR would have something stronger to say.
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